Different words and phrases can be used in documents and search queries that have the same or similar meaning. Such words and phases can be referred to as paraphrases. Identified or known paraphrases can be useful in document summarization, information retrieval, and information extraction. Conventional methods for identifying paraphrases include compiling potential paraphrases by a user or users and then mining text to determine if the potential paraphrases are actual paraphrases. Such methods are time consuming and rely on users to compile the initial list of potential paraphrases.